Scrum-half Tom Habberfield recently spent an evening at Nantymoel RFC where he joined young players on the training field for a special development event.
Hosted by the WRU/Ospreys Community Rugby team, the evening was aimed at encouraging local children to take up the sport and, hopefully, provide a boost to playing numbers at the club.
Habberfield pulled on his boots to lend a hand and put the boys through their paces, passing on tips and hints to help them become better players.
There were special training sessions held for the Under 7's, 8's and 9's, with the different age grades focussing on age-appropriate aspects of rugby. The younger attendees had some fun taking part in tag rugby sessions while the older children worked on their tackling and handling skills.
Following on from the development session, Nantymoel RFC happly reported a 20% increase in players across the participating age grades and there are plans to host more sessions in the future to help the club grow further and remain sustainable.
Nantymoel RFC have also recently hosted a district festival for players in the Under 7-9 age grades which was well attended with close to 20 clubs from the area taking part. The skills learnt at the development session with Habberfield were on show as well as the hard work put in by the team's coaches week in week out.
The Under 9's Valley Ravens team eventually came out winners of the Festival.
Tom Cole, Regional Participation Officer for Bridgend, said:
"It's great to have sessions such as these to help encourage youngsters to join their local teams. They're always really successful and it's a great opportunity to teach children more about the sport and show them how much fun joining their local team and playing can be. It's also been brilliant to have Tom with us to help run the session and inspire the youngsters in their own rugby careers".